metroid password generator

2005-09-28 04:54:39 am

In reverence to SnoBro's hard work figuring out the password checksum and tappers work in creating a checksum program so you can spell all kinds of fun messages, I decided it was time for a better program to replace those.

So I wrote one. The Metroid Password Generator (mpg for short) is at http://games.technoplaza.net/mpg/

You can decode/encode passwords, change any of the password bits, fix checksums to spell fun words I can't post here and much much more.

Why did I really write this when SnoBro and tapper already made great programs? The real reason is I wanted one that worked in Linux, and both of their programs are Windows only.

Mine is NOT Linux only though. It works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS-X, and should compile under any system that will run GTK (good news for Solaris and FreeBSD users, as well as any other Unix I didn't mention). It's free software under the GPL, too, so you can get the source if you want it.

My program does a lot of things I wished theirs would. Organized sets of bits for a more useful GUI than SnoBro made. You should be able to edit the passwords in the same program that fixed the checksum, and you should be able to use all 256 shift values, not just 16 like tappers (although I understand his reasons).

Lastly, I did a lot of research on the password data, and learned what 116/128 bits in the password data do, which is a big step up from SnoBro's 72. I only saw one bit in my unknown list ever used in Metroid, and I'm not entirely sure what it does. I think it may have something to do with enemies that are already cleared, but I haven't done enough research to know that for sure, so it's more like a wild guess. I think the other 11 are quite possibly unused, though I can't say that for sure.

You can read more about my reasons in the readme if you really care, or about the program itself.

If someone has a Mac with OS-X, I'd really appreciate some help testing my program. Other people, too, but Mac OS-X is the one system I have limited access to (PearPC emulator on Linux), and I can't really test the program well. It's been tested fairly well on Windows and Linux, and I didn't notice any problems.

Comments and questions are welcome. I hope it proves useful.

Thread title:

In reverence to SnoBro's hard work figuring out the password checksum and tappers work in creating a checksum program so you can spell all kinds of fun messages, I decided it was time for a better program to replace those.

So I wrote one. The Metroid Password Generator (mpg for short) is at http://games.technoplaza.net/mpg/

You can decode/encode passwords, change any of the password bits, fix checksums to spell fun words I can't post here and much much more.

Why did I really write this when SnoBro and tapper already made great programs? The real reason is I wanted one that worked in Linux, and both of their programs are Windows only.

Mine is NOT Linux only though. It works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS-X, and should compile under any system that will run GTK (good news for Solaris and FreeBSD users, as well as any other Unix I didn't mention). It's free software under the GPL, too, so you can get the source if you want it.

My program does a lot of things I wished theirs would. Organized sets of bits for a more useful GUI than SnoBro made. You should be able to edit the passwords in the same program that fixed the checksum, and you should be able to use all 256 shift values, not just 16 like tappers (although I understand his reasons).

Lastly, I did a lot of research on the password data, and learned what 116/128 bits in the password data do, which is a big step up from SnoBro's 72. I only saw one bit in my unknown list ever used in Metroid, and I'm not entirely sure what it does. I think it may have something to do with enemies that are already cleared, but I haven't done enough research to know that for sure, so it's more like a wild guess. I think the other 11 are quite possibly unused, though I can't say that for sure.

You can read more about my reasons in the readme if you really care, or about the program itself.

If someone has a Mac with OS-X, I'd really appreciate some help testing my program. Other people, too, but Mac OS-X is the one system I have limited access to (PearPC emulator on Linux), and I can't really test the program well. It's been tested fairly well on Windows and Linux, and I didn't notice any problems.

Comments and questions are welcome. I hope it proves useful.

Raccoon Sam

2005-09-28 10:36:07 am

I have a mac. Cool, I suppose.

Heh..
ENGAGE RIDLEY
MOTHER FU(KER

RT-55J

2005-09-28 11:39:19 am

Armor Guardian

Yay! Now I can make up funny passwords without screwing up my computer (that's why I don't like tapper checksum calculator).

Yoshi348

2005-09-28 12:19:59 pm

PAGE BREAKER

Ready and willing.

Quote from jdratlif:

If someone has a Mac with OS-X, I'd really appreciate some help testing my program.

Heh, have you picked the right forum... ^_^

EDIT: ROFL, there's an "over 37 hours" ending?

nate

2005-09-28 03:02:00 pm

really cool ... stickied. i'll test it when i get home tonight if i can remember. love the extra effort that went into it to make it not just better than what came before it, but way better than what came before it.

Sasuke_Kun

(user is banned)

2005-09-28 03:06:32 pm

Most of the codes on GameFAQ's for NES Metroid are fake! What's with that!?

jdratlif

2005-09-28 04:07:28 pm

Quote from RT-55J:

Yay! Now I can make up funny passwords without screwing up my computer (that's why I don't like tapper checksum calculator).

I wasn't aware tappers had any problems. It seemed to work fine for me, but I only used it a few times.

Quote from Yoshi348:

Quote from jdratlif:

If someone has a Mac with OS-X, I'd really appreciate some help testing my program.

Heh, have you picked the right forum... ^_^

Excellent. I thought most people would have Windows boxes. I made sure it started with PearPC, but I can't do much because it's so slow and unresponsive most of the time. Also, many keys and mouse drags don't work right. Someday I'll have a Mac, but I'm poor right now.

Quote from Yoshi348:

EDIT: ROFL, there's an "over 37 hours" ending?

I don't know where all the current ending data comes from, but it seems like one or two people learned a few things, and got a few things wrong, then posted it. Then it was picked up by every Metroid faq ever written.

But I did actual research into the precise game ticks. SnoBro's commented reorganized Metroid source was a big help in confirming a lot of what I suspected.

Although I forgot to fix my readme. There is not a 37+ hr ending because the number is not actually 32-bit. I just realized that last night after I released it, so I will need to edit the readme.

edit: I was closer than I thought actually.

It is almost a 32-bit number, and only the LSB overflows at 240, which saves a lot of math headaches, as you can take the upper 24 bits and multiply by the (LSB & 0xD0).

This means there are several tick counts that are identical from the games pov. I'm not going to make a time control because you can't translate a tick count directly into hours, minutes, and seconds, but I think I will add a label that tells the approximate time next to it, and have a game menu for PAL/NTSC differences.

The corrected times:

Ending 1: Under 1024 ticks (< approx 1 hr 8 min)
Ending 2: Under 2560 ticks (< approx 2 hr 51 min)
Ending 3: Under 7680 ticks (< approx 9 hr 6 min)
Ending 4: Under 31232 ticks (< approx 34 hr 42 min)
Ending 5: >= 31232 ticks (> approx 34 hr 42 min)

Ending 1 = Samus in Bikini
Ending 2 = Samus in One Piece
Ending 3 = Samus - Helmet
Ending 4 = Samus Victory Pose
Ending 5 = Samus Shame Pose

Then of course, she starts in her one piece at the ending opener if she was in the game, otherwise she starts in her space suit. This accounts for the other 5 endings.

960 ticks = 1024 ticks
2400 ticks = 2560 ticks
7680 ticks = 5632 ticks
29280 ticks = 31232 ticks

These values and the ranges between them are all the same due to the overflow of the LSB at 0xD0. It doesn't seem to make the timing any closer to real seconds, so I don't know why they did this, only that they did.

The important math thing to keep in mind though is that 959 + 1 tick = 1024 ticks, not 960 ticks. So you can use a PAR code to fix it to 960, and you will still get the bikini ending, even though the game would have overflowed from 959 + 1 to 1024 to give you the one piece ending. You can also create passwords with invalid game ticks, but it will just overlow on the next tick, so it doesn't seem to be a problem.

I forgot it was even wrong until you mentioned your surprise. Then I realized my mistake... Hope there's nothing else in there like that. For a couple hours, I had a readme that said the Mac version was completely borked, and wouldn't decode passwords at all. Turns out, the text controls were just scrolled past the end of the text, and PearPC doesn't respond to mouse drags on text controls or the home key.

Quote from njahnke:

really cool ... stickied. i'll test it when i get home tonight if i can remember. love the extra effort that went into it to make it not just better than what came before it, but way better than what came before it.

Thanks. I didn't like SnoBro's because it was hard to find what you were looking for. Too many unanswered questions about the pasword data. I'd like to share this with him, but I can't email him, and his old home.sol.no page is gone.

If anyone knows how I can contact him, I'd appreciate it.

Quote from Dark_SA-X:

Most of the codes on GameFAQ's for NES Metroid are fake! What's with that!?

People make stuff up. GameFaqs can't check everything. You should report anything you see as false. I think I will go take a run over there real quick.

If the passwords have blanks though, they might not be spaces. Spaces are special, Blanks are 0's.

I reported two passwords that were altered NAR PASSWORDs that were obvious fakes and they removed them within a couple days.

edit: Which ones are you talking about. With the exception of the Samus_ Beats_ Mother Brain_, they all worked for me. I reported that one.

[quote="RT-55J"]Yay! Now I can make up funny passwords without screwing up my computer (that's why I don't like tapper checksum calculator).[/quote]

I wasn't aware tappers had any problems. It seemed to work fine for me, but I only used it a few times.

[quote="Yoshi348"][quote="jdratlif"]If someone has a Mac with OS-X, I'd really appreciate some help testing my program.[/quote]

Heh, have you picked the right forum... ^_^[/quote]

Excellent. I thought most people would have Windows boxes. I made sure it started with PearPC, but I can't do much because it's so slow and unresponsive most of the time. Also, many keys and mouse drags don't work right. Someday I'll have a Mac, but I'm poor right now.

[quote="Yoshi348"]EDIT: ROFL, there's an "over 37 hours" ending?[/quote]

I don't know where all the current ending data comes from, but it seems like one or two people learned a few things, and got a few things wrong, then posted it. Then it was picked up by every Metroid faq ever written.

But I did actual research into the precise game ticks. SnoBro's commented reorganized Metroid source was a big help in confirming a lot of what I suspected.

Although I forgot to fix my readme. There is not a 37+ hr ending because the number is not actually 32-bit. I just realized that last night after I released it, so I will need to edit the readme.

[b]edit[/b]: I was closer than I thought actually.

It is almost a 32-bit number, and only the LSB overflows at 240, which saves a lot of math headaches, as you can take the upper 24 bits and multiply by the (LSB & 0xD0).

This means there are several tick counts that are identical from the games pov. I'm not going to make a time control because you can't translate a tick count directly into hours, minutes, and seconds, but I think I will add a label that tells the approximate time next to it, and have a game menu for PAL/NTSC differences.

The corrected times:

Ending 1: Under 1024 ticks (< approx 1 hr 8 min)
Ending 2: Under 2560 ticks (< approx 2 hr 51 min)
Ending 3: Under 7680 ticks (< approx 9 hr 6 min)
Ending 4: Under 31232 ticks (< approx 34 hr 42 min)
Ending 5: >= 31232 ticks (> approx 34 hr 42 min)

Ending 1 = Samus in Bikini
Ending 2 = Samus in One Piece
Ending 3 = Samus - Helmet
Ending 4 = Samus Victory Pose
Ending 5 = Samus Shame Pose

Then of course, she starts in her one piece at the ending opener if she was in the game, otherwise she starts in her space suit. This accounts for the other 5 endings.

960 ticks = 1024 ticks
2400 ticks = 2560 ticks
7680 ticks = 5632 ticks
29280 ticks = 31232 ticks

These values and the ranges between them are all the same due to the overflow of the LSB at 0xD0. It doesn't seem to make the timing any closer to real seconds, so I don't know why they did this, only that they did.

The important math thing to keep in mind though is that 959 + 1 tick = 1024 ticks, not 960 ticks. So you can use a PAR code to fix it to 960, and you will still get the bikini ending, even though the game would have overflowed from 959 + 1 to 1024 to give you the one piece ending. You can also create passwords with invalid game ticks, but it will just overlow on the next tick, so it doesn't seem to be a problem.

I forgot it was even wrong until you mentioned your surprise. Then I realized my mistake... Hope there's nothing else in there like that. For a couple hours, I had a readme that said the Mac version was completely borked, and wouldn't decode passwords at all. Turns out, the text controls were just scrolled past the end of the text, and PearPC doesn't respond to mouse drags on text controls or the home key.

[quote="njahnke"]really cool ... stickied. i'll test it when i get home tonight if i can remember. love the extra effort that went into it to make it not just better than what came before it, but way better than what came before it.[/quote]

Thanks. I didn't like SnoBro's because it was hard to find what you were looking for. Too many unanswered questions about the pasword data. I'd like to share this with him, but I can't email him, and his old home.sol.no page is gone.

If anyone knows how I can contact him, I'd appreciate it.

[quote="Dark_SA-X"]Most of the codes on GameFAQ's for NES Metroid are fake! What's with that!?[/quote]

People make stuff up. GameFaqs can't check everything. You should report anything you see as false. I think I will go take a run over there real quick.

If the passwords have blanks though, they might not be spaces. Spaces are special, Blanks are 0's.

I reported two passwords that were altered NAR PASSWORDs that were obvious fakes and they removed them within a couple days.

[b]edit[/b]: Which ones are you talking about. With the exception of the Samus_ Beats_ Mother Brain_, they all worked for me. I reported that one.

Yoshi348

2005-09-28 11:29:50 pm

PAGE BREAKER

Ready and willing.

So it's "only" 34 hours? Whacky... you'd deserve the shame pose.

jdratlif

2005-09-29 12:47:51 am

Quote from Yoshi348:

So it's "only" 34 hours? Whacky... you'd deserve the shame pose.

Third times a charm... :-) I can't do math...

0xD0 != 240. So my calculations are wrong again.
0xD0 = 208 (according to my calculator :-)

This means

1: < 0h 59m
2: < 2h 28m
3: < 5h 25m
4: < 30h 5m
5: >

These are timings for NTSC metroid of course. And I let my program calculate these, so I'm pretty sure the math is right, unless my equations are, but I'm good at that part, so I think they are okay.

I'm just putting the finishing touches on 0.91 with a time conversion label for PAL and NTSC. Should be out sometime tomorrow. I thought my code was wrong for a minute, then I realized it was my math that was off.

jdratlif

2005-09-29 04:03:08 am

I released version 0.91 with the real time label which does proper tick -> time translation.

It's interesting to note that if you beat the game with the JUSTIN BAILEY password, you get the best ending still, not because the game time is so long, but because it actually wraps back around to 0.

Anyway, some more fun numbers. Metroid can track your game time for over 471 years in the NTSC version, and over 566 years in the PAL version. That one second difference in the timing can really add up.

The only thing left I plan to add is a custom text control which moves over the spaces in the password text without your explicit input. It's the one thing in SnoBro's program that's better than mine.

Unless there are suggestions, of course...

spineshark

2005-09-29 01:12:51 pm

in the name of justice!

Quote from jdratlif:

Anyway, some more fun numbers. Metroid can track your game time for over 471 years in the NTSC version, and over 566 years in the PAL version. That one second difference in the timing can really add up.

Whatever the purpose of humankind was before, I'm changing it. Until 2500 we MUST spend our time finding out what happens after you Single-Segment Metroid 1 for 472 years.

Red Scarlet

2005-09-29 01:32:52 pm

I('d) like to watch (some MP3 runs)

The shame ending rocks.

spineshark

2005-09-29 03:50:43 pm

in the name of justice!

By about five hours it's either die, win, or give up for me.

jdratlif

2005-09-29 07:15:45 pm

Quote from Spine Shark:

Quote from jdratlif:

Anyway, some more fun numbers. Metroid can track your game time for over 471 years in the NTSC version, and over 566 years in the PAL version. That one second difference in the timing can really add up.

Whatever the purpose of humankind was before, I'm changing it. Until 2500 we MUST spend our time finding out what happens after you Single-Segment Metroid 1 for 472 years.

Yeah, but you just know that in 471 years they'll be a power failure.

Fry: Just Remember, Scooty Puff Jr, Suuuuuuccccckkkkksss!
Nibbler: In a thousand years, I'll get right on it.

--Futurama

Red Scarlet

2005-09-29 07:34:57 pm

I('d) like to watch (some MP3 runs)

I wonder how long it would take with frameskip and fast forward?

spineshark

2005-09-29 07:39:18 pm

in the name of justice!

Quote from jdratlif:

Quote from Spine Shark:

Quote from jdratlif:

Anyway, some more fun numbers. Metroid can track your game time for over 471 years in the NTSC version, and over 566 years in the PAL version. That one second difference in the timing can really add up.

Whatever the purpose of humankind was before, I'm changing it. Until 2500 we MUST spend our time finding out what happens after you Single-Segment Metroid 1 for 472 years.

Yeah, but you just know that in 471 years they'll be a power failure.

Fry: Just Remember, Scooty Puff Jr, Suuuuuuccccckkkkksss!
Nibbler: In a thousand years, I'll get right on it.

--Futurama

That's why it's the new purpose of the entire human race. With 6 billion people and 450 years of decendants I'm sure we can conquer any hitches in the plan.

nate

2005-09-29 08:15:22 pm

wow, this thing rules. two suggestions: cap the missiles field at 255 (if that is indeed the max) and spell os x correctly. are you interested in being linked from the m1 section of this site? additionally, i can host your entire operation if you're having any problems with your current hosting arrangement.

jdratlif

2005-09-29 09:09:55 pm

Quote from njahnke:

wow, this thing rules. two suggestions: cap the missiles field at 255 (if that is indeed the max) and spell os x correctly. are you interested in being linked from the m1 section of this site? additionally, i can host your entire operation if you're having any problems with your current hosting arrangement.

It's never OS-X? Okay, I'll change it before the next release.

The missiles are capped at 255, but you can enter more in the text field. I know of no way to prevent the text, because it doesn't exist (where you can get to it) until after the change gets made. Believe me, I spent quite a lot of time trying.

Same thing with the game time. You can enter 10 9's if you want. It will cap at 2^32 -1, but you can still enter more. At least the game time prevents you from entering letters. That's the most annoying part of a spin control. Why would it ever need to except characters? (maybe hex input, but how often does that occur, really?)

The shift value is also this way, capped at 255 though you can enter other values, even non-numbers. It's quite annoying.

As for a link, that would be great, but I have great hosting for my site already. Thanks for the offer though.

[quote="njahnke"]wow, this thing rules. two suggestions: cap the missiles field at 255 (if that is indeed the max) and spell os x correctly. are you interested in being linked from the m1 section of this site? additionally, i can host your entire operation if you're having any problems with your current hosting arrangement.[/quote]

It's never OS-X? Okay, I'll change it before the next release.

The missiles are capped at 255, but you can enter more in the text field. I know of no way to prevent the text, because it doesn't exist (where you can get to it) until after the change gets made. Believe me, I spent quite a lot of time trying.

Same thing with the game time. You can enter 10 9's if you want. It will cap at 2^32 -1, but you can still enter more. At least the game time prevents you from entering letters. That's the most annoying part of a spin control. Why would it ever need to except characters? (maybe hex input, but how often does that occur, really?)

The shift value is also this way, capped at 255 though you can enter other values, even non-numbers. It's quite annoying.

As for a link, that would be great, but I have great hosting for my site already. Thanks for the offer though.

jdratlif

2005-09-30 03:42:58 am

Could someone with a Mac with OS X test the new version for me real quick.

All I need someone to do it try to enter a password in the password text control. It's not letting me enter anything in PearPC, but it's hard to know whether PearPC is at fault or me (probably me, but just in case).

http://games.technoplaza.net/temp/mpg-0.92-osx.dmg

It works on Windows and Linux. I don't know why it's failing on Mac.

Thanks.

jdratlif

2005-09-30 06:33:29 am

Okay, I fixed the Mac version with a hack. I think wxWidgets is broken though, so I hope my post on their newsgroup gets answered.

In any event, I released version 0.92 which includes a custom text control which makes editing and entering passwords easier.

There is also a new submenu under Password that helps fix checksums. You can now select the 16 shift values compatible with any 22-character password and use them to fix the checksum. This is nice when you enter a password only to fix the checksum and come up with an invalid password. Now you can cycle through the shift values, just like tapper's program.

I can't think of anything else to add, so unless someone has a problem with it or a suggestion, 0.92 will probably become version 1.0.

http://games.technoplaza.net/mpg/

nate

2005-09-30 07:02:33 pm

entering text looks good. though "os-x" still appears on your page. i've linked you from the m1 section. hope you approve.

jdratlif

2005-09-30 08:19:05 pm

Quote from njahnke:

entering text looks good. though "os-x" still appears on your page. i've linked you from the m1 section. hope you approve.

Well, I changed the readme. :-) I'll change the page, too.

BTW: I noticed what you meant on Mac. On Windows and Linux, >= 255 will become 255. So if you entered 999, you would get 255. But on Mac, it looks like 999 = 99.

I think I can change this behaviour to be consistent with Windows and Linux. I probably will once I finish my document about the password format.

Thanks for the link. The site is awesome by the way. I came here many times when I was replaying Super Metroid. I followed Red Scarlet's run, and watched your qt movies to learn the tricks. I still suck, but I suck way less than I used to. :-)

nate

2005-09-30 08:35:42 pm

thanks. always nice when fans of scarlet actually come out and admit it so she can stop telling me no one cares. :P

jdratlif

2005-09-30 10:42:39 pm

Quote from njahnke:

thanks. always nice when fans of scarlet actually come out and admit it so she can stop telling me no one cares. :P

No one cares?!?! Ridiculous. I was amazed by what I saw in my first Super Metroid speed run (which I think was a 1:17 run), but I was blown away when I saw Red Scarlet's :55 minute run. Infinitely more impressive.

I spent at least 10 minutes trying to Super Jump across the water to the Wrecked Ship. I finally made it though.

I couldn't jump across and make the wall jump to get to Kraid, but I was able to time a running jump to land on the platform without high jump boots. That took forever too, but mainly because I was trying to get a wall jump rebound.

jdratlif

2005-10-02 02:59:16 am

I just released version 0.93.

It adds better validation for the controls. If you go outside the range (missiles, shift byte, or game time), it assumes you meant the maximum value for each (255 for missiles and shift, 2^32 -1 for the game time). This means 999 = 255 now on OS X just like the other platforms. As a bonus, you can also no longer enter characters in the spin control, just numbers. I abandoned spin controls in favor of text controls and spin buttons. It looks a bit worse on Windows, but works a lot better in Linux and OS X, so I guess it's a good compromise.

It also fixes a few bugs including a couple that crash the program (through NO FAULT OF MINE I might add -- damn wxWidgets or GTK+. I'm not sure who's to blame, but I'm 99% sure it's not me)

http://games.technoplaza.net/mpg/